


Down By the Lake

by perhapsitsem



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: 2019 Timeline, Friends to Lovers, M/M, au where there's no time travel, bartosz is lonely and insecure, confession of feelings, let me know if anything else needs to be tagged, meeting jonas' other friends, mild spoilers for the show you should probably finish it first, no one's dead, totally not just me projecting onto him, why is this the first fic for these two they're so cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27762031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapsitsem/pseuds/perhapsitsem
Summary: Jonas befriended Bartosz not too long ago, and this is the first time Bartosz has hung out with the rest of his friends. Martha and Franziska seem nice, but Magnus won't stop giving him weird looks. And he refuses to get in the water because he thinks there's a dead body at the bottom of the lake. It's not exactly how Jonas imagined this would go.
Relationships: Franziska Doppler/ Magnus Nielsen (Background), Jonas Kahnwald & Bartosz Tiedemann, Jonas Kahnwald & Martha Nielsen & Magnus Nielsen & Franziska Doppler, Jonas Kahnwald/ Bartosz Tiedemann
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Down By the Lake

**Author's Note:**

> Jonas and Bartosz are my favorite ship from this show and I was pretty disappointed to find out there aren't any fics from them yet, so I decided to write one! :)

Bartosz looked out at the once-still lake. He watched the ripples skate to every corner of the water. This was supposed to be a serene, relaxing place. This was supposed to be a place where you forget about all your worries and just soak in the sun. But it was cloudy that day. A cliched reflection of Bartosz’s internal state.

His face formed a natural frown, a dissatisfaction with his surroundings. He shivered slightly as a stray breeze nudged past him. He watched the people in the lake, laughing and screaming. He’d known them all since they were children. Martha and Magnus Nielsen, Franziska Doppler, and Jonas Kahnwald. To clarify, he’d known of them since they were children. The four of them were a close-knit group, and always had been. Bartosz had been a shy, quiet child. He had kept to himself and soon all the other kids learned that attempting to talk to him was pointless. It wasn’t their fault he was disinterested, he was just more entertained by the world he created in his mind.

But as he grew up, his imagination seemed to fade. The walls of his tower gradually crumbled and Bartosz realized he was all alone. He felt desperate and abandoned, stuck in a hole that he didn’t have the strength to pull himself out of.  
“Bartosz!” Jonas ran to catch up with him after class one afternoon, “I really liked your essay. It was easily the best one in the class.”  
“Oh, um, thanks. Yours was pretty good too.” Bartosz thought about that moment up until he saw Jonas again. He had complimented him, even though he didn’t have to. Bartosz couldn’t tell if he was overthinking it or if Jonas had offered out a hand in friendship. He hoped it was the latter, but prepared himself for the likelihood that it was the former.

Jonas smiled when Bartosz entered the class. Bartosz was confronted with a new feeling. He wasn’t quite sure how to describe it, but he definitely liked it. Jonas started chatting with him about assignments from other classes, and they talked about their shared resentment of their science teacher. It was small talk, really, but it was more than Bartosz was used to. He had a faint smile for the rest of the day.

Bartosz kept expecting to walk into class and for Jonas not spare him a second glance. He expected his attention to have been imagined, or maybe a temporary lapse in judgement on Jonas’ part. But Jonas only seemed to want to spend more time with him. Jonas had walked into a field, and saw all the other, beautiful, flowers, but he picked Bartosz.

The two of them began to hang out a lot. Mostly at Bartosz’s house, and mostly playing video games. He savored every moment, because it always felt like the next instant Jonas would wake up and leave him. He was trying to prepare himself for the eventual inevitability of being alone again, but it was just so easy to be around Jonas. He didn’t want to get hurt, but it was beginning to look like that was going to happen. He watched Jonas laugh with his friends in the lake. He felt far removed from him.

This was the first time Bartosz had hung out with any of Jonas’ other friends. None of them had ever made an effort to talk to him, so he had returned the favor. He had resented the three of them for a while, but he figured that was probably because he was just jealous of their friendship, so trying to become friends with them as well was a good thing. Unfortunately, he felt like he was fifth-wheeling, if that’s what you’d call it. Magnus and Franziska were dating, and oh did they make sure everyone was aware of that fact all the time, and it was very obvious that Martha liked Jonas. Bartosz couldn’t tell if Jonas liked her too, but he hoped he didn’t. Then again, the four of them were splashing each other and laughing while Bartosz sat on dry land.

Bartosz hated the lake. It had creeped him out for as long as he could remember. He couldn’t get rid of his fear that there was a body at the bottom of it, so he refused to go into it. He knew there probably wasn’t, but his anxiety didn’t particularly care about what he knew. When he told them that, Magnus just shrugged. “If you want to be a pussy, that’s your problem, not mine.” He then grabbed Franziska’s hand and they ran into the water, Franziska shrieking at the temperature. Jonas looked as if he might stay with Bartosz, but he seemed to change his mind when Martha chased after the couple. He glanced back with a sympathetic look on his face, but he still ran to the water.

It made sense, though. Bartosz was sure that Magnus must’ve told Jonas to invite him, with the intention to embarrass him like this. He did this to remind Jonas that he’s better than hanging out with a coward like Bartosz, and to remind Bartosz that he’ll always be alone in the end. Bartosz tried to be happy that he was ever Jonas’ friend in the first place. He hoped it wouldn’t be too hard to see his face in the hallways after today. In order to prevent himself from crying, Bartosz watched the ripples on the water.

As if he heard his thoughts, Jonas broke away from the other three and walked out of the water, a smile still on his face even as he approached Bartosz. He sat next to him. “I’m sorry about the lake. I didn’t realize you were scared of it otherwise I would’ve suggested we do something else.” His slate colored eyes conveyed a sincerity that made Bartosz believe him.

“It’s alright. You didn’t know.”

“Do you really think there’s a body down there?” He asked curiously.

“Yes. My mother says that when she was about our age she saw a body being dragged into the lake, but she couldn’t tell who was dragging the body because they were too far away and she couldn’t stand to look at it for longer than a few seconds. She suspects that at least the person who died was from out of town because no one in town died or went missing during that time.”

“Wow.” Jonas eyed the body of water. “Are you sure she’s telling the truth?”

“My parents don’t lie to me. If she told me she saw it, she at least thought she did.” He said plainly.

Jonas shuddered. “Gross.” He stood up and ran closer to the water’s edge, “Hey guys! Do you want to play volleyball?”

Bartosz wasn’t exactly the most athletic, but volleyball could work.

“Did anyone bring a ball?” Asked Magnus, in a certain tone of voice that unsettled Bartosz.

“Oh, I did! Let me go grab it from my bag!” Franziska ran as fast as the water would let her towards the shore.

Martha chased after her. “How do we want to divide up the teams?” She looked at the other three on land, then at Magnus, still in the water.

“Well obviously Magnus and I are going to be on the same team.” Said Franziska.

“But you two are the most athletic, that wouldn’t be fair.” Martha whined.

“Is it more fair if you’re also on our team?” Franziska grinned.

“Don’t worry about it.” Magnus said, suddenly behind Bartosz, “I don’t want to play.” He sat down on his towel.

“Bartosz, do you want to be on my team?” Jonas asked.

That made sense. Franziska and Martha probably wanted to be on the same team anyway, and Jonas was too kind to let either of them have to awkwardly partner up with him, but still, Jonas had chosen him again. Not Martha, him. “Who says the team is yours?” Bartosz tried to joke.

“Cool! Boys versus girls!” Said Martha. Technically, she was right, but that wasn’t why.

Regardless, they started the game. Bartosz was quite awful. As it turns out volleyball requires skill. Martha and Franziska had the teamwork thing down, they were beating Bartosz and Jonas by a lot because the duo kept running into each other and letting the ball fall, giving them the point. But they were laughing so much that neither of them really cared about points all that much.

Bartosz made the mistake of glancing over at Magnus midgame. He was scowling, looking directly at him. Bartosz had just passed his earlier thoughts off as overthinking and being insecure, but maybe Magnus really did want to keep him out of the group. Whatever the case was, Bartosz didn’t feel very safe.

BEEP BEEP BEEP Jonas’ phone rang out. He quickly scrambled to try to hit the mute button. “Sorry guys, I’ve gotta go back home now.” He started gathering his stuff.

Franziska looked at the darkening sky, “It looks like it might start raining soon, so we should probably all go.”

“A little rain never hurt anybody.” Magnus spoke up, “Besides, we are at the lake. None of you are afraid of getting wet, right?” He cocked an eyebrow at Bartosz. A shiver ran down his spine.

Bartosz averted his eyes to the sand underneath his feet. “Jonas, the other day you mentioned lending me a book, do you mind if I ride home with you to pick it up?”

Jonas was already holding the handlebars of his bike. “Yeah, sure, no problem! We’ll have to leave now, though.”

“Okay, thanks!” He smiled at the taller boy. He waved goodbye at the girls, who made promises to hang out again, and at Magnus, who gave him a dirty look. Bartosz couldn’t imagine what was running through his mind.

Jonas and Bartosz sped down the road on their bikes, wind running opposite of them. They didn’t talk for a while but it wasn’t awkward, it was nice. 

They reached a stop light, and waited for a car to go before turning. “So what did you think of my friends?” Asked Jonas.

Bartosz hesitated before answering, “Martha and Franziska seem pretty cool, but I don’t think Magnus likes me very much.”

“I’m sorry. He’s kinda just like that around new people, I’m sure it’s nothing personal.”

Bartosz was inclined to disagree, but he didn’t want to upset him.

“I’m sorry again about the lake. We won’t go back there again.”

“Please, Jonas, don’t worry about that. I still had fun, it’s not a big deal.”

Jonas glanced sideways at Bartosz, causing him to not see the small rock in his path. The front tire of his bike skipped over top of it, upsetting Jonas out of his seat, sending him palm-first into the asphalt.

“Are you okay?” Bartosz slowed to a stop a few feet ahead of him.

Jonas’ cheeks flushed in embarrassment, “Yeah.” He chuckled awkwardly, “I just need to pay more attention to the road, I guess.”

Bartosz felt a drop of water on the back of his hand, then another on his forehead. “We should get going.” He said.

They tried to outrun the storm on their bikes, and were largely unsuccessful, but they were able to get into the house before outside turned into a sheet of water falling from the sky. “Jonas! I thought I told you to be home fifteen minutes ago!” Hannah Kahnwald, Jonas’ mother yelled, exiting the kitchen. “Oh, hello Bartosz.”

“Hi, Mrs. Kahnwald.”

She pointed at Jonas, “We’ll talk about this later.” She went back into the kitchen.

Jonas hung his yellow coat on the coat rack. “The book’s upstairs in my room.” He started walking upstairs. Halfway up, he turned and asked, “Are you not coming too?”

Bartosz blushed and ran up the stairs after him. Jonas’ room was simple and dark. The wall behind his bed at pictures of him with his family and friends.

Jonas pointed at a picture of him, Martha, Magnus, and Franziska posing around a sloppy looking cake. “That was for Franziska’s birthday last year. The cake was barely edible.” 

He pointed at another picture, of a younger Magnus and Jonas covered in paint, “My dad never let us in his studio after that. We messed up one of the paintings he was working on and didn’t realize it was for a big client. But my mom said we looked cute so she took a photo.” 

He pointed to another where Franziska was drawing a mustache on a sleeping Magnus, “That was before they started going out. He was so mad at her.” 

He pointed at a picture of Martha and him as toddlers, sitting side by side on a swing set, “That was when we were finally old enough to swing by ourselves. Martha cried because she wasn’t able to get as high as she was when someone pushed her.” 

He looked at Bartosz, “I wish we had some pictures together.” He pointed at an empty spot on the wall above his pillow, “I’d put one there,” he started pointing at other empty spots on the wall, “and there, and there, and there…”

Bartosz looked at Jonas as he scouted out places on his wall. He was blushing.

Jonas turned to face Bartosz, “Do you want to know why I actually think Magnus dislikes you?” He blurted out. “He doesn’t like new people, that’s true, but never this much. Magnus has this idea that our group will be like this perfect little family, and that we’ll be friends forever, but in his mind that requires me and Martha to start dating.”

“Martha and I” Bartosz corrected his grammar. “Sorry.”

“But I don’t want to date Martha.”

“I don’t really see what this has to do with me, though.”

Jonas took a deep breath, “It’s because I want to date you.”

Bartosz’s eyes went wide.

Jonas started talking a mile a minute, “I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said that. You don’t have to respond if you don’t want to. I'm sorry, there’s no pressure to say anything. I’m-” 

“Can I kiss you?” Bartosz interrupted, his face a bright pink.

“Yes. Please.” Jonas said softly.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this takes place in Germany and they use the metric system, but it sounds weird when I use it so hopefully the mention of feet & miles didn't take you out of it too much. I'm on my rewatch right now and I haven't gotten to the part where Helene kills middle-aged Katharina and drags her into the lake, so I don't remember if Regina saw that, so let's just say she did. But also, there's no time travel in this AU, so did Regina even see anything?
> 
> (Minor edits made 12/1/2020 for grammar and clarity)


End file.
